From Brian Lockhart, CT Post:
Several city police officers have filed complaints alleging Acting Chief Armando “A.J.” Perez illegally withheld overtime.
And, as a result, the City Council’s Budget Committee has scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday to try and get to the bottom of the controversy.
As reported earlier this month, Officer Johanna Angelo wrote the state Department of Labor accusing Perez of withholding “hundreds of thousands” of earned overtime payments to make it appear he has spending under control.
Perez has outlined strategies to make it tougher to earn overtime, but denied he has held on to money his men and women had coming.
Nancy Steffens, a labor department spokesman, told Hearst Media that an estimated eight such complaints have so far been received by the agency’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division. Steffens declined to provide additional details, such as the complainants’ names and how much back pay each is seeking.
Full story here.
So who’s running this city, Trump?
An electrical subcontractor who worked on the Trump International Hotel in Washington has sued a company owned by President Donald Trump for more than $2 million, alleging it was not fully paid.
Crime rate is up in Bridgeport by 3%, taxes are up 30%, and Joe wants to hire more cops, but not pay them overtime?! Is that what Ganim calls Holding the line on Taxes?
Bring on the Blue Flu!!!
Look at the numbers for internal overtime each year, per shift 1, 2 or 3, and external overtime and see what trends if any appear. Why is so-called “external overtime” set up at overtime rates? It is work, why not expand the PD to include personnel who do the work in regular time at regular rates, less expensive. And avoid the significant added pension expense to the City, that cannot be billed to contractors, etc. Is this discussed in line with labor negotiations? Time will tell.
JML, what will the City be willing to give the union in exchange for what you are suggesting for their negotiations? Remember, good faith negotiation is a win-win for both sides.
Ron,
Can you provide an estimate of the give and take of the last union contract with the Police union? The Union seems to have moved a relatively reasonably funded Pension plan to the State for PD personnel who would then have a 50% of highest three year earnings rather than 50% of base pay. The City also gave up a right to charge more to contractors for reimbursing the full expense of outside overtime and has the taxpayers solely funding that. (What did that add to the Police component of Pension funding?) And former civilian control (through mechanism of Police Commissioners) of discipline was turned back to the chief (or acting chief, as the case may be), which placed that action back to City Hall for practical reasons, and the less politics is involved with matters of fairness and justice and civil order, the better off we are, I believe. What did we get for the City and was its value commensurate to our expense, Ron? Get the question? Time will tell.
Joe can’t assign responsibility for his new budget on Finch. Can he hold the overtime back until July’s budget? Where’s the Union? The Brotherhood?!
The solution is to amend the MERS to reflect the use of base pay only, not overtime or other payouts such as mileage expenses.
But then, of course, the government employee unions will fight it and they own the Democrats who still control the legislature. Let’s wait to see what excuses the Democrats can come up with.
Malloy beats his chest because he ‘negotiated’ a ‘restructuring’ of state employee pension payments by simply extending the payment schedule more years into the future.
I agree with Tom White’s assessment, both of them.
What is the city council budget committee going to review, the fact that the overtime budget is nearly depleted half-way through the fiscal year? Or are they going to listen to complaints from police officers so they can pander and make comments about how they support them?
Three different police officers have complained about this to me. This is a violation of labor laws.
Who is ultimately responsible if overtime was deliberately withheld?
Is there a penalty for this practice? Were they told to do this? Does anyone above the rank of patrolman have a similar complaint?
The cops have to get their overtime when it falls due. The books can’t be “cooked” to make the numbers look good.
Vacancies have to filled in a timely basis. Give more entrance exams, overtime is not cheaper than hiring. Departments need to be fully staffed, some positions need to be eliminated and more tasks have to be done on straight time. Are deputy chiefs really needed, can someone of a lesser rank do their job?
How many jobs are cops doing that a civilian can do? You hear about this on OIB. Like the I.T. guy who takes care of the Internet. I am sure there are plenty of civilians who can do that job. I would place a bet the I.T.guy is not the only one.
Putting civilians where you can is a major step in the reduction of overtime. Some positions should be salary. I wonder if the union feels the same way.